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Maclean’s magazine is acknowledging Canadian restaurants, publishing a 132-page special edition of the country’s 50 best restaurants on October 1.

As a prelude, the magazine named Vancouver’s Hawksworth, Restaurant of the Year. (The Grove, in Toronto, was named New Restaurant of the Year and Normand Laprise of Toque in Montreal took Chef of the Year title.)

Hawksworth restaurant received the most prestigious nod, indicating it’s firing on all cylinders in every respect, including being in sync with the pulse of the current dining culture.

“It gets the nod because it captures the zeitgeist perfectly,” says Maclean’s food writer Jacob Richler. “Basically, Hawksworth strikes a perfect pitch of casual posh — precisely as one more typically finds it in cities like New York, London and other sophisticated places four times Vancouver’s size.”

In an interview, Hawksworth said as a chef, he started off “full of piss and vinegar” but with experience, calmed down. “One day, you say ‘Forget it. I’m not putting nine things on the plate. I’ll put three and each of them will be perfect’.”

The first-time Maclean’s restaurant issue will be on new stands Oct. 1 at a cost of $12.95. The top restaurants were chosen by a team of critics across the country.

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